David Wyatt

Gender equity programmes in academic medicine: a realist evaluation approach to Athena SWAN processes

Objectives Gender inequity has persisted in academic medicine. Yet equity is vital for countries to achieve their full potential in terms of translational research and patient benefit. This study sought to understand how the gender equity programme, Athena SWAN, can be enabled and constrained by interactions between the programme and the context it is implemented into, and whether these interactions might produce unintended consequences. Design Multimethod qualitative case studies using a realist evaluation approach. Setting 5 departments from a university medical school hosting a Translational Research Organisation. Participants 25 hours of observations of gender equality committee meetings, 16 in-depth interviews with Heads of Departments, Committee Leads and key personnel involved in the initiative. 4 focus groups with 15 postdoctoral researchers, lecturers and senior lecturers. Results The implementation of Athena SWAN principles was reported to have created social space to address gender inequity and to have highlighted problematic practices to staff. However, a number of factors reduced the programmes potential to impact gender inequity. Gender inequity was reproduced in the programmes enactment as female staff was undertaking a disproportionate amount of Athena SWAN work, with potential negative impacts on individual womens career progression. Early career researchers experienced problems accessing Athena SWAN initiatives. Furthermore, the impact of the programme was perceived to be undermined by wider institutional practices, national policies and societal norms, which are beyond the programmes remit. Conclusions Gender equity programmes have the potential to address inequity. However, paradoxically, they can also unintentionally reproduce and reinforce gender inequity through their enactment. Potential programme impacts may be undermined by barriers to staff availing of career development and training initiatives, and by wider institutional practices, national policies and societal norms.

“A Faustian bargain?” Public voices on forensic DNA technologies and the National DNA Database

This article draws on the idea of the “forensic imaginary” (Williams 2010) to explore UK public perspectives on the place, role and significance of forensic DNA technologies, both independent of and in relation to other genetic applications. Using correspondents’ replies to the Spring 2006 Mass Observation Directive “Genes, Genetics and Cloning,” the analysis focuses on continuities and tensions in their discursive repertoires. The argument examines (1) the ways in which knowledge is made sense of in these accounts; and (2) the discrepancy between an appreciation of the benefits of using DNA identification techniques in police work and a more critical attitude towards a wider national DNA database. The conclusion reflects on the need for a wider scope in research on public understandings of science, which looks beyond targeted consultations and specific publics, and provides more textured data to document collective views on the development and governance of forensic DNA technologies.

Practising crime scene investigation: trace and contamination in routine work

The crime scene investigator (CSI) has a distinct professional profile within the police. It is the CSI who is tasked with identifying trace at crime scenes in order to inform police investigations. Despite this significant role, little is known sociologically about the CSIs routine work. This paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork completed at the National Policing Improvement Agencys Forensic Centre, observation of CSIs at real crime scenes and interview data to consider the CSIs practices surrounding trace at volume crime scenes. It foregrounds the work that takes place in transforming crime scene trace into admissible evidence or objects for laboratory analysis and the processes of identifying meaningful trace, central to CSI claims of unique expertise. Yet beyond the crime scene and police environment, it is the CSIs ability to record their adherence to prescriptive contamination avoidance procedures which is of paramount importance. This paper demonstrates the agency involved in making sense of crime scenes and the differing ways the CSI and CSI work are understood across police and courtroom environments.

Perceptions of the uses of routine general practice data beyond individual care in England: a qualitative study

Objective To investigate how different lay and professional groups perceive and understand the use of routinely collected general practice patient data for research, public health, service evaluation and commissioning. Design, method, participants and setting We conducted a multimethod, qualitative study. This entailed participant observation of the design and delivery of a series of deliberative engagement events about a local patient database made of routine primary care data. We also completed semistructured interviews with key professionals involved in the database. Qualitative data were thematically analysed. The research took place in an inner city borough in England. Results Of the community groups who participated in the six engagement events (111 individual citizens), five were health focused. It was difficult to recruit other types of organisations. Participants supported the uses of the database, but it was unclear how well they understood its scope and purpose. They had concerns about transparency, security and the potential misuse of data. Overall, they were more focused on the need for immediate investment in primary care capacity than data infrastructures to improve future health. The 10 interviewed professionals identified the purpose of the database in different ways, according to their interests. They emphasised the promise of the database as a resource in health research in its own right and in linking it to other datasets. Conclusions Findings demonstrate positivity to the uses of this local database, but a disconnect between the long-term purposes of the database and participants’ short-term priorities for healthcare quality. Varying understandings of the database and the potential for it to be used in multiple different ways in the future cement a need for systematic and routine public engagement to develop and maintain public awareness. Problems recruiting community groups signal a need to consider how we engage wider audiences more effectively.

Tracing technologies: Prisoners' views in the era of CSI Helena Machado and Barabara Prainsack Ashgate 2012

The contemporary media provides a plethora of images of science and scientific practice. These often revolve around forensic technologies and the potential they offer in the investigation of crime. Whereas there are numerous accounts of the perceptions of these technologies and their uses by specific interested parties, from police personnel through to juries, this book is the first of its kind to consider prisoners as stakeholders in the contemporary uses of forensic science and forensic genetics in the criminal investigative process. Taking the prisoners and their narratives seriously, Machado and Prainsack examine the understandings, histories and perspectives offered by Portuguese and Austrian prison inmates in relation to bodily traces and forensic technologies. Concentrating on their sources of forensic knowledge, including their perceptions of media representations, and understandings of forensic evidence, the authors firmly place prisoners within debates about the utility, development and deployment of forensic technologies in contemporary law enforcement. The strength of this study lies in the textured data and analysis presented. Differences in accounts are embraced and interrogated by the authors, taking us far beyond any simple or homogenous prisoners’ view to seeing these actors as active agents, making sense of their practices, the practices of others and the potential of forensic technologies in diverse and interesting ways.